This is the public portion of Ms. Kennedy's thesis defense. Her advisor is Vuk Mandic.

The SuperCDMS test facility at University of Minnesota aids in the detector R&D and characterization of prototype detectors, as part of the scale-up effort for SuperCDMS SNOLAB. This thesis presents the first full ionization and phonon characterization study of a 100 mm diameter, 33 mm thick prototype Ge detector with interleaved phonon and ionization channels. Results indicate that 100 mm diameter, interleaved Ge detectors show potential for use in SuperCDMS SNOLAB.

As part of detector R&D, the Minnesota test facility also looks beyond the next stage of SuperCDMS, investigating larger individual detectors as a means to easily scale up the sensitive mass of future searches. This thesis presents the design and initial testing results of a prototype 150 mm diameter, 33 mm thick silicon ionization detector. The detector was operated with contact-free ionization electrodes to minimize bias leakage currents, which can limit operation at high bias voltages. The results show promise for the operation of both large volume silicon detectors and contact-free ionization electrodes for scaling up detector mass and bias.